A Bounty on Death
by SamBan
Summary: Story for the March 2020 r/fanfiction crossover challenge. After the twelfth shadow is destroyed, Minato struggles to fully accept what his life has become and questions how he wants to live his life. To make things more complicated, a powerful bounty hunter has set their sights on something related to Tartarus.
1. Empress I

Samus sidestepped a puddle of blood as she made her way through the streets of Japan, the skyscrapers looming over her, blocking her view of the ommonusly glowing moon. City landscapes weren't her specialty. While she had experience dealing with them, she found they clashed with her skill set. She had a knack for finding her way through cramped environments that enemies oftentimes couldn't transverse, and excelled in combat in open arenas. Cities allowed her to utilize neither of these advantages, and thus she avoided bounties from them, leading to further unfamiliarity in the settings.

Luckily, it seemed she could do most of her work in her suit, another issue she sometimes had in city settings. The planet was under a curious affliction, where every day it would fall into an altered state of being. Every sentient creature on the planet would find themselves comatose in a coffin, blood would replace water, and all electronic devices would stop functioning. Strange creatures, which she had begun referring to as N-forms until she discovered more, would prowl the streets, hoping to devour the psyche of the now defenseless humans.

Most interestingly, life hadn't been disrupted for the natives. It seemed when they awoke from their comatose they no longer had any memory of the event, even if they were nearly preyed upon. Their time keeping devices seemed to completely skip the hour without disruption. If it weren't for her suit preventing the effects, she doubted she would have even noticed the occurrence at all.

She walked to a news stand, once again picking up a paper in disbelief.

November 11th, 2009

It shouldn't have been possible. She was in an incredibly ancient era of earth, so old they hadn't even switched to the cosmic calendar. It was an age of fairy tales, when humans arrogantly believed they were the only sentient life in the universe. It was a time before nuclear power was widely adopted. She was closer to the first human civilization than she was to the founding of the Galactic Federation.

She put it down, careful to line up the edges perfectly to avoid any trace of her being here. Time travel wasn't as finicky as ancient humans initially believed, an insect flapping its wings wouldn't cascade into a natural disaster. However, the entire civilization was like walking through a museum. It felt wrong for her to influence it, like it lost its authenticity.

Something moved on the outskirts of her vision, and her attention immediately snapped to an N-form making it's way to a coffin. Immediately symbols began dancing around her vision as her suit analyzed the creature.

It was a weak being, little more than a black blob with an odd blue mask. It seemed to have trouble against extreme heats, and was resistant to extremely low temperatures. It had little arm-resembling appendages it used to pull itself towards its destination with an almost adorable amount of effort.

Almost being the keyword. It was a parasitic extra-dimensional creature that fed off of her kind without any semblance of sentience. It was an invasive species at best, an eldritch affront to nature at worst.

Her left arm began shifting, and a sensation of warmth covered her forearm as plasma began running through the suit. The creature seemed to notice her finally, and began shuffling after her with surprising speed.

The creature posed no threat to her. Realistically, she didn't know if this was a natural part of history, one of many that didn't make the history records, or a result of the reason she was here. If she thought rationally for half a second, it was clear she should just walk away.

There was a flash of light and the creature was incinerated, not even ashes remaining.

Unfortunately for the N-form, it had caught her on a bad day.

The bottom right of her visor began flashing red as a countdown alerted her to the end of the temporal anomaly. She sighed in annoyance. Earth might as well be in the stone age when it came to battle suits, and it was easier to move through cities when blending in to a degree. She needed

She looked in the direction of her target. After several occurrences of the anomaly, she had triangulated the origin to a high school on a japanese island. Making her way there in daylight was a real hindrance. Japanese was a dead language in her time, and there were no universal translators yet, so the language barrier was a real hinderance without her suit.

She would manage though. She always did.

* * *

Minato enjoyed walking home alone, music running through his headphones.

He didn't dislike being with people. However, the past couple months were an onslaught of social interactions. He had filled as many of his waking moments as possible with friendships he thought could bloom the most in order to enhance his powers. The next fight had always been his primary concern, pushing him to squeeze every ounce of value out of his time. Combined with trying to maintain his grades and leading the SEES team through Tartarus, moments alone were few and far between.

It was curious, he had never been that social before coming here. He hadn't been a loaner, he had always been welcomed in the social circles he traveled. However, he had always primarily listened in group settings and never really got to know anyone on any deep level. Now he was pinballing between intimate friendships and heartfelt moments like no one's business.

He felt another pang of guilt as he reflected on his actions. He had dropped so many people. Yuko had been his most recent friendship he didn't think he would pursue anymore. If he was being honest with himself, he regretted going as far as he did with her. However, she had seemed interested, and he had extra time to fill. She hadn't been a bad girlfriend. In fact, a lot of guys would have been lucky to have her. She was kind enough, attractive, and very respecting of his space.

He wished she had been horrible if he was being honest. Maybe it would have dissuaded him from dating both her and Fuuka at the same time. Even better, if one of them had been less understanding, maybe he wouldn't have pulled it off. Neither of them had deserved that. He even denied them both the ability to catch him.

Fuuka didn't feel as wrong if he was being honest. She knew what she was getting into. She had seen him with other girls. She had filled their time with largely meaningless banter and cooking. He was a springboard for her confidence like she was a springboard for his power. If he squinted he could pretend it was mutually using each other. It certainly made him feel better when he did. Sometimes he wondered what his next feat of mental gymnastics was going to be to twist his actions into something less morally reprehensible.

He stopped as he noticed someone out of place walking the opposite direction. She had to have been one of the tallest women he had ever seen, solidly over six feet tall. She was clearly a foreigner, blond hair, blue eyes, and incredibly pale skin gave that away immediately, but for the life of him he couldn't place where from. She had a simple outfit that could have been from any number of stores, in fact the most remarkable part of it was how incredibly unremarkable it was. If she were japanese, she would have disappeared into a crowd in an instant.

He sighed to himself. He was going to do it again wasn't he?

However, it was clear she was going to be easy. An outsider trying to fit in with all her might, not unlike Bebe. Perhaps she was actually born here, but her appearance made her stand out in a way she didn't like. Maybe she was just born with the body of a supermodel, and no one ever saw the real her, and was having trouble expressing her individuality because no one had ever explored it with her.

He glanced at the sun, which was just setting. Orchestra had gotten out a little early, so he had time before he needed to be back at the dorm. However, did he want to do this? There wasn't a shadow coming the next full moon. He had something he legitimately enjoyed going on with Yukari. Something he wanted to see play out for real. Maybe this time urgency wouldn't make him ruin it. Especially with someone who's age placed labeled her as more Kenji's type than his own.

The dark hour hadn't disappeared though. His friends were still in danger. They could very well end up relying on his power, maybe more than ever. No one knew what was going to happen on the next full moon.

And he had actually wondered what his next excuse was going to be. What a joke.

What if the dark hour wasn't going to go away. Was he supposed to spend his entire life flitting through girls? No. Now was as good a time as any. He needed to stop. Now. This time he would just keep walking.

To his surprise, she actually approached him first and motioned him to stop. The height difference was more clear than ever, with her being a near half foot taller than him, forcing him to look past her more feminine assets to see her face. To his great relief she knelt down a little so they were eye to eye before pulling out a map. To his frustration, he couldn't notice her femininity becoming more pronounced with the help of gravity.

Well fuck you too fate.

"I am sorry I don't speak Japanese and am lost," she said slowly in English, pointing at the map. "Do you know how to get to Gekkoukan High? I can't read the street signs."

His mind blanked for a moment as he struggled to translate in his head. He was suddenly very thankful he stayed awake as often as he did in English class as he deciphered her words in his head and began rolling with the situation. He pointed on the map where they were and then where Iwatodai station was.

"Three stops," He advised, pointing towards Port Island station. Using fewer words was probably better for overcoming language barriers, less chance for miscommunication. From there he traced his normal route to the school.

She looked confused for a second. "One stop?" She asked, pointing from where they were to the high school. Alarm bells were ringing in his head.

Something was off about her. Not understanding english was one thing, not understanding trains was another. She was far closer to Aigis or Elizabeth than she was Bebe.

"Train," he replied, again pointing to the stations. For a split second, her eyes widened in what seemed like disbelief before nodding.

"Understood, thank you," she said standing up. She hesitated for a moment. "Do you study there?" She asked, again slowly for his comprehension.

"Yes."

"Be careful there at night."

He felt his heart stop as she walked away. Did she know about the dark hour?

He turned to face her, but she was gone.

Even worse, he felt himself awakening a new social link.

Shit.


	2. Empress II

Samus in front of the school as her suit counted down seconds until midnight, reading a book she had bought from an old couple to pass the time.

Part of her felt like she should be out there experiencing the history of her people, but another part of her said this was enough. She hadn't grown up around humans, and she hadn't grown up around human culture. However, there was something fulfilling about being around her own kind in times of peace like this. She supposed it was a part of the human psyche to want to be with other humans.

Yes, she had spent time with humans in her time. However, that was mostly business. They were at war and she had a knack for winning. This though, it felt like humans in their natural habitat. Cozy houses, tons of social interaction, organized schedules that even the children were adhering to, it truly was a world built for humans, by humans, free from alien influences. Even her sitting by herself here felt normal, like she was supposed to be here. It honestly felt like the world the Chozo were trying to give her in her upbringing, but the species gap kept it from actually happening.

Humans were such fascinating creatures.

The world shifted as her timer reached zero, and the earth began trembling as the school began raising into the air. Other seemingly man-made structures rose from the ground, although it was more of a cancerous conglomeration of buildings melted together with no regard for structural integrity.

She patiently waited for it to stop before she began approaching it. Something in there was going to be useful.

* * *

Minato walked through the halls of his school, trying to decide his plans for the day. It was a friday, so Yukari was unfortunately going to be busy. Perhaps he should spend his time with Mamoru, he felt his time with him was well spent. He was also pleasantly low maintenance and relaxing to be around. He was the type of friend he really wouldn't mind being around once all this was over.

If it was all over. That was a tough one to wrap his head around. All the more reason though, if it was over, Mamoru was someone he wanted to keep around. Well, not that he didn't want to keep anyone around, but once things slowed down and he didn't have to juggle people, he would like to keep a core friend group.

He supposed he could spend some time to find the foreign woman again, but that seemed to be more trouble than it was worth if he was being honest. He had no connection to her, had no interest in her, and she seemed to be the type that would take a lot of effort.

He heard a muffled crash from a supply closet on his right, making him pause. People in the halls continued past him, ignoring the sound, but something about it seemed off. Sure, the janitor might drop something now again, but that was a full crash.

A couple more crashes came from the closet and curiosity got the better of him. He opened it, only to find himself looking at an extremely tall woman looking just as surprised as he felt.

However, she seemed to have the worst deal. He was supposed to be here. He was wearing a school uniform. She on the other hand, was a non-faculty adult wearing a skin tight blue jumpsuit hiding in a closet. Furthermore, she was holding a mop, was still carrying a couple items that seemed to have fallen off the racks, and was standing in the middle of a puddle created from a sideways bucket.

Their eyes met and her surprised disappeared. What replaced it was an icy glare that would have made a shadow recoil in fear.

"Door. Close. Now."

The door was closed so fast the

He glanced at his phone. Twenty more minutes for lunch. He sighed. Well, he'd never made progress on a social link during lunch before, but lets see if he could make some magic happen.

Samus could have died from embarrassment.

She put the mop back in its place and softly placed the cleaning products back on the shelves. She couldn't even determine the worst part of the situation. The fact that she was lost, the fact she was seen without local clothes, the fact that she was found, the fact that she had knocked the equipment down, the fact that the kid had surprised her, the fact she barely got out of her suit in time for him to not see it, or the fact that she had no idea how to react to the situation.

She heard a knock at the door.

"Stay out," she said slowly in English, trying desperately to hide her accent. It was difficult trying to speak old-timey, everyone pronounced things like they were still in the Great Gatsby or some other archaic text that children needed to have translated. She hoped that the kid took it as trying to help with translation.

"You need help?" he asked from the outside, making her pause. Is there a reason she should reject his help?

She looked at the air duct she had just come out of. What kind of archaic place didn't have air flow based on the Magian model? It was literally engineering 101. Forget the inefficient air flow, it made finding her way around the place in morph ball nearly impossible. Even space pirate junkers were more intuitive than this sorry excuse for a building.

"Can you get me the schematics for the air ducts?" She asked, hoping she said everything right.

"Sure."

No questions? That seemed strange to her. Of course, she didn't know the social norms of the time. Of course, it was the same boy as last time, so maybe it was the kid being oddly tolerant of her.

Well wasn't this a great day. The great Samus needing help from a primitive high school student. Next thing she knew she would need a ten year old's help killing something.

Pride sufficiently damaged, she got to work removing evidence of her presence. Towels were luckily plentiful, so she managed to wipe the floor from the bucket without issue. However, there didn't seem to be any water to refill it.

She sighed, and took a seat facing the door. The closet was small enough that it was difficult to do so without touching the supplies, but she managed.

How was she supposed to know that staying in the tower after the temporal anomaly was going to land her in the school's basement. It seemed just as likely that she would stay in it, and simply skip the next day from everyone else's perspective. Maybe she would have if it weren't for her suit.

Regardless, she was back to sitting around. She was doing an awful lot of that recently, and she wasn't happy about it.

Several agonizing minutes passed before a paper was slipped under the door. A quick glance told her the ins and outs of the airways, and she slipped it back to indicate she was done with it.

"Thanks kid," she said through the door, "I owe you one."

* * *

Minato took the paper back in surprise. Had it actually only taken her ten seconds?

"Thanks kid, I owe you one."

He briefly considered asking what on earth she was doing, but let it go. He felt a rush of energy as his social link increased, telling him no questions was going to be the way to go with her.

He kind of hoped she was just an old pervert who liked high school kids or something. She wouldn't be the first, and it would certainly make their relationship a lot easier. At least, it would make it a lot easier than if, as he assumed, she was investigating the school for more supernatural reasons.

Maybe he should let Aigis meet her. He trusted her judgement for some reason. She was the reason he was keeping the distance he was from Ryoji at least. Plus, he could trust her to keep a secret.

Besides, they both seemed kind of inhuman, maybe they would get along.


	3. Empress III

**A/N: Double post because thats how much I got done**

Samus skid across the tiles as she turned her arm cannon into a plasma beam, destroying two more N-forms with practiced ease.

Fifty floors up and the creatures were certainly improving. Still far from a threat, but their speed and coordination were starting to rival that of poorly trained human units.

She heard clapping behind her, and immediately fell into a combat position, switching into her scan visor to find…

Nothing. But the claps were still coming.

X-ray, nothing. Thermal, nothing. Frantically, she jumped back, landing as she finished switching back into her normal vision. A pale white haired woman was standing in front of her.

She was average height for a woman, meaning Samus towered over as a rule. However, she did not seem flustered, instead simply staring at her with her hands clasped behind her back. Her deep navy blue stewardess outfit was completely unwrinkled, not even air seem to touch it.

Goosebumps shot up her arm. Not only did this creature keep up with her jumping back, it had done so without any seeming effort.

"You are rather interesting," it said. "Tartarus is rarely considered a vacation location, especially for one so extravagantly exoskeletoned."

Samus began charging her power beam. While not her most powerful, how the being reacted to it would dictate further action.

The strange being looked her over carefully. "It seems you have a social bond with him. The Empress. Its interesting, I thought the redhead had that one, as they say, on lock."

Samus hesitated. Nothing she was saying made any sense. However, one thing was certain, this was information, maybe the best info she could get out the place. Certainly the best she'd gotten so far.

The creature was suddenly inches in front of her. There was no movement. She was simply there.

Samus jumped back, this time successfully creating space, much to the apparent annoyance of the being. Ignoring that, she launched the fully charged power beam at the being. She hadn't had to use an attack that powerful since coming to the timeline, but even her time's most technologically potent creations had trouble handling that level of power.

The attack seemed to dissipate into smoke as the creature swatted it with less thought than a pesky insect.

"The light from your weapon created an obstructive glare that made it quite difficult to see past your glass screen. Perhaps more force is needed to properly observe your face."

Again, no travel time for the gap to be closed. This time though, a gloved hand had grasped her helmet and pulled her down. Her knees buckled as the force of the pull threatened to rip her head off if her body didn't make every concession to follow. The creature was pressing it's face to her visor, it's nose distorting slightly against the screen to get it's eyes closer.

"Ahh, a blond female human. Perhaps he intends to add you to his harem? His current blond lacks the necessary parts for mating rituals, which I hear are quite pleasurable."

Her arm cannon was pressed to the being's torso, as she unloaded a series of super-missiles at point blank in desperation. Thankfully the being took a step back in surprise, letting go of the helmet.

Now was her only chance.

She threw her arm back, using her ice beam to create a half pipe behind her. She rolled into a morph ball, dropping a power bomb before boosting straight into the ice. She was launched back at the being at high speed, which should just send her…

The being jumped to catch her in both hands, like a basket ball.

"What a fascinating metamorphosis. I wonder how it responds to pressure?"

Excruciating pain shot through her body as her energy shields went down from the creature squeezing her. It began laughing in glee as a trickle of blood seeped from the suit.

It didn't have time to finish the job, as the power bomb went off, causing the creature to flinch and loosen her grasp enough for samus to begin spinning. Before the entity could collect it's thoughts, she had begun spinning fast enough that energy enveloped her in a screw attack, giving her enough momentum to escape it's grasp.

She didn't risk a glance behind her, simply landing in a dead sprint and pushing her system to activate her speed boost.

* * *

Elizabeth looked at her hands in surprise. She had actually felt something resembling pain.

The exoskeletoned woman had her curiosity before, but now it had her attention.

She felt a predatory smile creep onto her face. Perhaps she was more feline-like than she had initially believed, for she had the urge to bat around her new prey for hours before ripping it's throat out and discarding the carcass once it stopped twitching.

Oh, what fun! Perhaps she should embrace her new feline-hood and wear a bell to increase the difficulty in stalking. She assumed it took comprehensive knowledge of an incredibly difficult technique to pounce such a target without being noticed.

She would have to make arrangements for an adequate practice tool to reach mastery in such a technique!

* * *

Minato took his seat in the velvet room.

"Welcome to the velvet room," Elizabeth said as always.

"I would like to fuse some persona," He said, bringing out his notepad. "I have some combinations I believe will have some great results. But first can you bring out the compendium."

"But of course."

He grinned, looking over his notes. He had foregone studying last night for these notes, but he didn't regret it in the slightest. If he was right, his new social link would be able to boost Yaksini, which would increase his damage output as much as 10% if used right. Of course, that would depend on the next skills it learned, but he had a good feeling about it.

"Very well, but I would like to inform you of a change in Tartarus."

He blinked, looking at her in surprise. "More floors?"

"Another guest that may interest you."

His heart skipped a beat. The foreign woman?

"Also, I would like to make a request. I require a ball of yarn to practice my pouncing technique."

He looked at her blankly. Sometimes the garbage she asked for was beyond him.

"I accept?"

"Excellent," she purred. She seemed to be really committing to this cat thing.

"I hate to break up the chatting," Igor interjected as politely as possible, "however, I have many matters to attend to. I would prefer if we get straight to business."

* * *

Fuuka watched as Minato snapped out of his daze. That was one of his most peculiar habits to be certain. Every time he came to the bottom floor of Tartarus, he would walk to the same place and stare off into space for a time.

"Fuuka," He snapped, causing her to jump a little. "Can I ask for a little more from you tonight?"

She tried to quash a heart flutter before nodding. "Of course."

"Good because we are splitting up, and I need you to keep everyone in contact with each other."

Everyone jumped in shock.

"Minato, that goes against everything that has got us that far," she said in surprise, which he handwaved.

"We are plenty strong. However, we need to do a full sweep of Tartarus tonight. Something is wrong and I intend to find what."

"Doesn't that mean we should stay together?" Mitsuri rebutted, to which he paused to consider.

"Perhaps. But I don't intend on fighting whatever is here, just collecting information."

Everyone looked to each other in confusion, but he continued on as if there were no protests.

"Ken, you sweep Thebel, the first stack. I want you to clear it fast and return here to make sure Fuuka is safe. Junpei, you make it through Arqa, stack two. Don't give me that look, I trust you to do this alone. From there we travel in pairs. Aigis and Koromaru will take Yabbasha, the third stack. The two of you are lacking heals, so be careful, but you need to be a pair so Fuuka can communicate with Koromaru. Mitsuru and Akihiko will take Tizah, between the two of you there should be enough sustain and experience to make your way through, but don't rush. Me and Yukari will make it through Harabah, I'm the only one with the firepower and I need Yukari's support. Any questions?"

He looked between the squads, nodding at each until he reached Yukari.

Fuuka looked at the two of them, Yukari blushing a little as he smiled at her.

There was no way anything was happening there. Absolutely none. He was just too busy for relationships right now.

She refused to believe it.

But even if there was, she'd have to accept it right? After all, she didn't own him. And realistically, Yukari was way prettier and outgoing. Not to mention she was strong enough to stand next to him when things got tough.

Hypothetically of course.

"I'll make sure everyone is in communication with each other," she offered, "You can count on me!"

She let her heart flutter a little more as he smiled thankfully at her this time. After all, there couldn't be a reason not to. That was just paranoia.

* * *

"Woof!"

"You are right," Aigis agreed, "I also find his actions rather puzzling. However, we need to follow directions as always."

"Woof!"

She grinned at his loyalty, before stopping at the sound of his growl.

She turned to see what seemed like an orange and red futuristic suit of armor walking towards them.

"Fuuka, I believe we found something odd," Aigis sent back.

She waited for a second without reply. Perhaps she was busy with another call?"

* * *

Fuuka shivered as she brought her knees close to her chest and listened in on Harabah. There was no way that was kissing.

He… would at least tell her. He would at least have the decency to break her heart right? Not just ruin her perspective on… well, everyone.

She felt some more calls coming in, but ignored them in masochistic fascination. If this is what they were doing in Tartarus, where there was a chance of them being overheard, what were they doing alone?

She felt sick. But still she listened.

* * *

Aigis tried once again to make a call, but failed. Perhaps someone else had discovered something more important, decreasing the likelihood of this being what was being searched for. Besides, on further inspection, the creature seemed to be limping.

"Shall we engage or observe?"

"Woof!"

"I have also concluded that it cannot be the target. Supporting skills will not be necessary. Initiating Orgia Mode."

She shot forward with inhuman speed, raising her hands and firing a volley of bullets. She had miscalculated however, as the creature began moving in evasive maneuvers she could not follow with speeds unlike anything she had seen up until this point.

A truly dangerous mistake. The machine like being's arm began glowing, and it aimed what seemed to be a cannon at her. Luckily, a burst of fire covered it's vision, causing it to flinch and miss the shot.

"Good boy," She shouted to her partner, who barked in agreement, dashing in.

She summoned her persona, launching it's spear tip at the mysterious being, who weaved between both Palladion and Koromaru with incredible acrobatics, arm glowing an ominous red.

However, the two of them were far from unpracticed. After careful coordination, and leaving escape routes, they had the being midair with nowhere to run. Koromaru took the opening without hesitation, lunging with knife in his jaws.

In what seemed like an impossible twist, the being managed to direct her cannon at the pooch, blasting it with a burst of plasma that might have singed her eyebrows from the fifteen feet that was between them. Koromaru hit the wall limp.

Before she could process what had happened to scream, she felt her arms vanish.

She fell to her knees in silent defeat as the being approached her, arm cannon glowing.

* * *

Samus looked at the android in curiosity. Of course, she could only do so once it was properly disarmed, the previous creature had proved she couldn't let her guard down in the tower. The two of them had almost landed a hit in her injured form, the odd spirits they could summon being of particular interest.

The android was modeled after a human female, approximately high school age. It seemed state of the art by the days standard, but that wasn't the most interesting thing about it.

It had an illegal learning algorithm in it.

AI that had the potential to produce legitimate sentience was illegal for this very reason. She had no idea how much life it had. If it were a simple android, she wouldn't have even hesitated.

Luckily, it was so primitive she could reverse engineer it's programing in seconds. her scans showed it hadn't actually reached sentience yet. It had seemed a threat, and at this time she could reasonably kill it without moral question.

Slowly, the dog, back legs injured moved between the two of them, whimpering.

She looked at it's red eyes and saw nothing but pleading. It's like the life form had evolved specifically to tug at her heart strings.

She sighed, lowering her arm and began walking away. She had hit it with her plasma beam due to it's odd affinity with fire to preserve the small fluffy creature, but was honestly cute enough for her to want to preserve the android as well.

Besides, she hated it when morals worked their way into her missions. She was a bounty hunter for the simplicity of blowing up monsters. She didn't sign up to debate when something began murder, just to slaughter the cases when it was obvious.

* * *

Minato reached the first floor of Tartarus seconds after Yukari. They had decided to return separately to avoid any suspicion. However, he was not ready for the scene he walked into.

Fuuka was bawling her eyes out into Mitsuri's chest. Akihiko was hovering over Koromaru's barely breathing body, repeatedly trying to heal him, and Yukari had immediately sprung into action to assist him. Aigis was on her knees and staring off into the distance. Junpei looked at him as he entered, and began pointing at him as he approached.

"This is on you!" He shouted, "All this! Split up! Real great idea! There is something super dangerous, lets set up the worst possible scenario! Lets try to get everyone killed! Oh, and lets traumatize Fuuka while we're at it!"

"You aren't helping anything Junpei," Ken shouted, "Just let them heal Koromaru in silence. We can discuss this later."

He just looked at the scene. And he looked at it some more. He wondered when he would stop dreaming. He wondered when the nightmare would stop.

Like a sucker punch, he realized it wouldn't.

He distantly questioned how long he had been punching the ground before Ken had got him to stop. Judging by the fact the blood from his knuckles had pooled to the same size as his tears, he figured it wasn't a short amount of time. Funny how the pain hadn't set in.

* * *

Samus watched the kids leave Tartarus. It was a successful outing in her books. She learned what some of the more dangerous beings in the world were like, she had gained some information, and she had learned that there were others exploring the tower.

Interesting that he had shown up again. She would have to think on that to figure out how she felt. Perhaps later, once she sifted through all her new information.

* * *

Minato sat at the edge of the bed at 2am, hand bandaged up. Why on earth did that girls' social link just grow stronger.


	4. Empress IV

Minato had never thought that his life could implode so quickly.

Fuuka and Yukari were now talking openly about him. Junpei and Mitsuri seemed to have lost all respect for him. Koromaru was at a vet and Aigis was at the lab for repairs. Akihiko and Ken were… oddly indifferent actually. Small blessings.

He had decided to take the day off school. Between being top of his class and an otherwise perfect attendance, he doubted a single day would hurt him. And he really didn't feel like confronting the rest of the group. He certainly couldn't handle the veiled meaning behind words tailored to the social setting.

He hadn't expected the lounge to be so empty however. No one eating. No one working on projects. No one reading. No idle banter. No Koromaru.

It was just him. alone.

Odd, how this would have felt normal as little as a year ago. Now it was suffocating.

He decided to work to take his mind off things. He first tidied up the area, wiped the tables and such. He had left that to the other members for so long it felt right to finally do it. He even took the time to vacuum the lobby thoroughly enough for there to be neat parallel rows in the carpet. After realizing it only took him an hour to make the area spotless, he began making lunches for everyone for the next day. In his attempts to help Fuuka learn to cook he had picked up a few things of his own, and the others deserved much more for this.

He made sure to use the knife Shinjiro had loaned him, sharpening it immediately afterwards. He hadn't taken back the equipment that he had loaned him, so it seemed fair that he would wait to give back his knife.

It wouldn't be forever. Just not now. He had promised Shinji to make something good with it. Once he made something good enough he'd return it.

It gave him a reason to visit him years from now, once he made something he was proud of. It'd give him something to talk about.

He glanced at the clock when he finished, deciding he still had time to make plans for the day. Not for social links. But because he wanted to.

He was done with the damn links.

* * *

Samus waited until the Minato left before breaking into the dorm.

It was better secured than the school without a doubt, but one of the second floor windows had been left open. Hardly a security risk in most situations, but she wasn't exactly the type of thing you could plan for.

The mess in the room fit the personality profile she had compiled for Junpei. A quick glance around the room found three security cameras, which she promptly disabled through her suit.

She quickly moved through the dorm, looking for information. She started from the bottom, killing every camera on sight. Much to her annoyance, it wasn't until the top floor that she found something valuable.

The entire room seemed dedicated to a singular computer with dozens of screens. It took her only seconds to hack into it, and within a few minutes the dorm was once again empty.

* * *

Bunkichi and Mitsuko had always been gracious hosts, and today was no different.

They were disapproving of his skipping school, but after noticing his troubled expression quickly decided if he had to skip, it was best for him to do it under their supervision. They settled him in a chair with a good book, provided him homemade snacks, waited for him to talk should he want to.

After staring at a page for nearly twenty minutes without progress, he decided to not keep them waiting.

"I'm sorry I stopped visiting you."

The old couple looked surprised, glanced at each other for a second, and laughed.

"Kids your age should be educating themselves, not concerning themselves with us older folk," Bunkichi dismissed. "Maybe chasing a couple girls your age."

Minato felt his shoulders relax as tension he didn't know he was holding in slipped away.

"Chasing girls is more trouble than it's worth," he replied weakly, "I think from here on out I'll keep it singular."

"Ooh, little Minato, little heartbreaker," Mitsuko teased, "is that what has you down?"

A bit simplified. Only a part of it. But he was curious where this conversation would go. He nodded.

"Well, I promise us ladies are tougher than you think," she said with pride. "We'll have heartbreaks until we don't. We'll make it through, every one of us."

He looked at her with raised eyebrows.

"I don't want them to get over me, I want them to forget me."

"Well, no hope of that now is there?" This time it was Bunkichi again. "Everyone is going to remember you one way or another, take it from me."

"In that case, I don't want them to remember me badly."

"Then don't let them."

He frowned. "I think it's a little too late for that."

"Hoho, maybe it is. But you have a lot more memories to be made, you're bound to have a couple that are bad. It's all about drowning them out with good ones until you can face the bad ones and forgive them."

He tossed the idea around in his head.

He chose his next words carefully. "I don't think I want them to forgive me, not really. I just want them to be happier, and am worried that they will walk away from everything worse than when they met me."

"Then don't let them."

This time it was Mitsuko, looking at him sternly.

"If you don't want that, then sit them down and talk with them."

He briefly imagined how that would go. "I don't think it's that easy."

She smiled wearily. "I never said it would be easy."

He found himself smiling back.

"It's funny. This past year I've been running around trying to solve everyone's problems. It never occured to me that people would do the same for me."

She smiled sweetly, walking over and pinching his cheek. "Nonsense. I'm sure you would be amazed at how willing people are to return favors to the ones they care about."

* * *

Minato arrived back at the dorm nearly an hour before school was let out. However, he didn't leave the doorway for a good ten minutes. No one else was home yet.

So why were the vacuum lines messed up.

Someone had to have been there. Footprints, barely visible only because of the slight disruption in the lines, don't come out of nowhere. It took him a while to decide that, no, he was not being paranoid, and yes, something needed to be done.

Finally moving into action, he flipped out his phone sending a mass test to all S.E.E.S. members. '_Someone was in the dorm. Was it you or someone you know?'_

Not waiting for the answer, he went straight to his room, grabbed his sword, and made his way to the command room. No one else was really aware of it, but the Ikutsuki had placed cameras all over the building before he died. He was sure to get to the bottom of-

Nothing. No motion at all in the entire building the entire time after he left earlier that morning. However, looking carefully through the tapes, it seemed like the footprints in the carpet occurred no more than an hour after he left. However, nothing was there. It's just one moment they were there, and over the course of an hour the images blurred together. It was so subtle it seemed like sci-fi.

He had never heard of technology that could do that. He reached for his phone to ask Fuuka, but stopped. He didn't want to rely on her right now.

Instead he began looking through the rest of the dorm for more disruptions.

It was around when Ken came home that his social link with the foreign woman grew stronger.

He turned off the computer. It was an odd resolution, but it seemed despite her expertise the culprit had unknowingly revealed herself.

* * *

Samus felt like she had a pretty good read on the current situation by this point. There were months of information that she needed to sift through, but she had pulled out the highlights.

They currently had no information on her target. Not anyone alive anyways.

The cultist who could have given her real information was dead. All that remained were innocent children pulled into the crossfire. Her real target hadn't even arrived yet, which was odd considering the notes she had found. All twelve shadows were killed, something must have shown up to facilitate it's arrival by now. Or it had, it's just no one had noticed yet.

Regardless, she had more reason than ever to figure everything out. At this point, she had grown rather fond of the boy named Minato. It was rare anyone actively assisted her on any of her missions. Perhaps it was some human instinct, but she also felt the need to make sure the children were able to live the best life they could. Not in the same way she did the dog, which was simply cute, but in a more primal and, for lack of a better term, maternal way. It was an odd feeling, considering the distant possibility that one or more of them were her ancestors.

This was certainly turning out to be one of the most interesting missions she had taken so far.


	5. Empress V

The S.E.E.S. members were gathered in the lobby. Saying that there was an awkwardness would be putting it mildly. Yukari and Fuuka were avoiding each other's looks like the plague, while at the same time stealing sorrowful glances at each other that lasted until the moment they realized someone might be noticing. Mitsuri looked haggard, like she hadn't slept in a year and was about to snap from pressure. Junpei was glaring at the ground with arms crossed. Ken was looking around the table nervously, scared that any word would set off a chain reaction that would cascade into irreparable damage. Akihiko, again, seemed oddly calm.

"So, we are all here," Mitsuri eventually sighed. "Minato. Let's hear it."

He nodded, looking between them.

"Someone broke into the dorm. I believe it was a foreign woman, blond hair, a couple inches over six feet tall. Can't speak japanese. I don't know why she did it. However, I think she might be related to whatever attacked Aigis and Koromaru." Just stick to the facts for now.

"How do you know her?" Yukari demanded.

"I don't really. She asked me for directions to the school a couple days ago, and then warned I stay away from there at night."

"She knows about the dark hour?" Akihiko asked with interest.

"I think she does."

"And how does this relate to Aigis?" Mitsuri asked. "I believe that was why you called the meeting?"

"I think she was the one who did it to her."

Silence fell around the room.

"Do you have any evidence for any of this?" Junpei spat. "We didn't come here to hear about more of your escapades." Fuuka flinched, and Yukari looked down in pain.

"I didn't sense anything that night," Fuuka hesitantly offered, "I don't think I would have missed a persona user, even considering…"

Ken, noticing she was trailing off tried his best to complete her thought. "I think I agree with them. We need a little more to go off than some feeling about a girl you just met."

"There was a footprint on the rug."

There was silence.

"Really? That's what all this is about?" Yukari snapped. "Are you kidding me? Why don't you tell us what this is all really about? What else are you hiding? You have to be going off more than that. Or are you actually so stupid to think that anyone would blindly believe ANYTHING you would say right now?"

"I know my word means nothing, but you can just call this an instinct. I need your word you will run if you see someone like that. Beyond that you can hate me all you like."

Yukari glared at him, upset that he simply caved in to her accusations rather than giving her an excuse to continue to berate him.

"If all you are asking is to avoid that woman, I don't have a problem with that," Akihiko agreed. "Although you should gather more information and soon. We lose nothing by playing extra cautiously for now, but whatever reason you had us sweep Tartarus needs to be examined thoroughly. None of us thought that needed to be done, but you were clearly right that something was different. We clearly can't afford to ignore your instincts, but from now on we need to be much smarter about them."

"You can't be serious," Yukari said in disbelief, "We are letting him get away with yanking us around like this? Still? He's been doing this since day one, and I think we all know it!"

"Thats going a bit far Yukari," Ken replied weakly.

"No," Minato said simply. "Trust is going to be something I have to earn back, if I do. This though, this is my last request before I do that."

"Ok."

Everyone looked at Fuuka in shock. She grinned nervously.

"We have to keep our professional and personal lives separate as we approach this. In terms of the dark hour and Tartarus, Minato has made only one bad call in the entirety of the time we have been following him, and even that was just a bad response to something he was right about. We got lucky no one was killed. I just want to be safe and on the off chance he is right and this woman is dangerous, we should avoid her. As long as that is the extent of the restrictions he is suggesting, it shouldn't even affect our Kyoto trip."

"That checks out to me," Akihiko agreed. Mitsuru and Ken nodded in agreement. Junpei scoffed.

"What a joke," he said, making his way to the front door. "I'm outta here. Yukari, you coming?"

She hesitated, but shook her head. "No, if that's what everyone thinks is right, I can't stop them." She stood up and made her way to the stairs. "But I am done listening to bullshit for now."

The room was dead silent as the front door slammed and Yukari stormed up the stairs. Fuuka quietly gathered her things and followed.

"I hope it was worth us falling apart," Mitsuri said sadly before leaving for her own room.

The deafening silence dragged on between the three remaining.

"We've all made mistakes," Ken said eventually. "I know I have. We as a group are strong enough to move past it."

Akihiko nodded. "You can't change what you did. But you can use it as a lesson."

Minato accepted the advice from both of them with a nod.

"Why did you do it though?" Ken eventually asked. "I don't think anyone has actually asked you."

Minato sighed. He had long since decided that he wasn't going to talk to anyone about social links, the velvet room, or anything of the kind. "I wanted perfection I guess. I wanted our time here to be perfect. I wanted everyone to walk away with good memories and better than they were. I thought I was helping Fuuka by building up her confidence while helping Yukari through things. I suppose they both just turned into something more. I didn't say no to either because I was worried about hurting them. I didn't expect either of them to turn into something real. I didn't realize the stakes were as high as they were. For some reason I wasn't looking to the future and just figured at the end of the year everything would end with everyone."

The two didn't like the answer, but they believed it. Unfortunately, that was the best he had for them right now. He promised himself he would one day tell them the truth. He owed them that much at least.

If he was being honest though, he liked this answer better. If it wasn't real, it didn't stick to him.

* * *

Samus had put a hold on her investigations into Tartarus. All of the information from the place had already been obtained by the children, and she had access to it by extension.

Instead, now that she had more information on the Dark Hour and knew she had some time to kill, she was going to be experimenting. First thing to do was to test if she was able to move freely during the Dark Hour without her suit.

By her estimations, there shouldn't be any danger. The shadows could be dealt with even out of her suit, and there was a gap between their feeding and the opening of the coffins during which she could escape.

However, the being she ran into earlier was the main concern. It wasn't in any of the documents that she could find. Logic would dictate she was the supposed appraiser of the death god, but something didn't seem right about that.

She checked the time. 12:04. Looked like she wasn't capable of handling the dark hour herself. Her suit was mandatory. She was a little disappointed, having a persona seemed like it would have been fun if nothing else.

Probably best she stuck to what she knew anyways.

* * *

"Welcome to the velvet room."

Elizabeth and Igor were waiting patiently for him like always. Elizabeth's eyes glowed as he pulled out a yarn ball he had bought at the store for 100 yen.

"Ahh, you have completed my request," she said with glee. "What a wonderful ball of yarn. Domesticated felines all over the globe have been using these to practice hunting with great success. I am eager to try it myself."

Minato nodded, handing it over. He was used to her quirkiness at this point, but the enthusiasm was always entertaining.

"For my reward, I would like to know about the other one exploring Tartarus."

Elizabeth nodded, but before she complied Igor held his hand up to stop her.

"Unfortunately I will have to refuse that request," he said firmly. "I have already allowed for rules to be bent with these little requests, but we are not an information repository. Knowledge is power after all, and we are merely here to facilitate. It would be preferable if you were to keep to the services we offer."

Minato accepted without resistance. He had no idea what was going on in the room, and he was more than willing to follow whatever guidelines put before him if it meant he could continue coming back.

"In that case," He pulled out his notebook again, "I have some fusing to do. I am going to be busty soon, so this will have to last me through my Kyoto trip most likely, so I hope you are prepared for a long night."

Igor grinned. "But of course."

* * *

Samus entered the Kirijo building, silently acknowledging the camera locations. Since she didn't have her suit on currently, she couldn't deactivate them. Unlike with the dorm, the building had live security guards so editing the footage wouldn't work as effectively. She had to do this the old fashioned way.

The lobby was huge, looking not unlike Tartarus' first floor. The white marble floors and gold lined pillars seemed to be the culture's way of presenting wealth, and the company clearly had no shortage. Well dressed bodyguards lined the walls, each with a earpiece for communication. There was what appeared to be a bored teenager working at the front desk.

She was acutely aware of how much she stood out. However, the guards thankfully dismissed her as a threat. Despite her height, the sexual dimorphism in humans most likely led them to believe she could be physically restrained if needed.

Her genetic modifications made this assumption patently wrong of course, even if her training hadn't. However, it was a quaint little cultural feature that she picked up on and had been abusing the past couple days.

She approached the desk and held up a notecard she had made earlier that day. She briefly wondered if she had translated correctly, but the girl started pointing her down a hallway and hooked her fingers to indicate her to turn right. Samus nodded in response and followed the instructions.

Even the bathroom was flaunting wealth, something that she found amusing. Humans were oddly peculiar about bodily waste compared to a lot of species. The pristine condition of the restroom, as well the very useful fact that cameras were so beyond taboo that they were legislated out of existence, were largely concessions that humans would make in their transition to galactic dominance. Not entirely, but it was fascinating to see such a pure expression of human identity.

Unfortunately she couldn't afford to gawk at human restrooms, her plan had ended here. It was time for her famous improvisation skills to take hold.

There were no exits. The vents were too small for even her morph ball form (the barbarians). Destroying a wall would have made too much noise. Sinks and toilets had drains just large enough for what was needed. Obvious ways were out.

She scoured the walls for secret compartments with no luck, and tried lifting the floor tiles for the same result. To her surprise though, the ceiling was made of movable tiles. While the support structure was passable at best, it would do for an escape.

She moved her way through the building from there, sticking entirely to support structures and air ducts. Although the morph ball was her primary mode of transportation, she occasionally went zero suit when she was worried about the suit's weight.

Within a half hour of searching she found the room she was looking for, watching it from an air duct. It was a fairly cluttered room, with a couple older men moving around the room hastily, messing around on keyboards. In the center though, was her actual target.

Aigis.

She seemed to be deactivated at the moment for repairs. That was going to be something that needed to be fixed, she needed to be able to access her memory banks.

She was the only one that had information on the appraiser.

A quick scan of the room revealed there would be a shift change around 1am where she could enter the room uninterrupted for several hours.

She absolutely hated waiting like this, but sometimes it was necessary.

* * *

Aigis's mind was a haze as she lifted her head. That was odd. Usually she awoke refreshed at the lab. Whoever was waking her must be using a different process.

Before her was the orange and red creature. The one who did this to her.

She immediately struggled to move, but found her body wasn't working. It only took her a moment to recognize the situation.

"Are you really so sadistic you need to look me in the eye when you kill me?" She asked it. She wasn't sure why she spoke, it wasn't going to respond. It just seemed the right thing to do.

The thing seemed to stare at her.

"I don't think I should call it murder, you are still an android," it said finally.

Aigis hadn't even expected the thing to respond, but what she heard felt like a sucker punch. That was strange. It had only stated facts.

"So I am," she responded back. It was then that her memory circuits went into overdrive, and images came flooding into her mind. Images of ten years ago. Of that night on the bridge, where she had faced down death. When she had sealed it inside of Minato. The connection between Nyx and Ryoji.

She winced, having all that flood back into her at once wasn't pleasant or natural. She looked the thing in the visor again.

"You did that didn't you?"

"Yes."

"Are you aligned with Nyx?"

"No."

Aigis nodded. This was good. "Are you on our side?"

"I'm not taking sides. I'm just here to stop Nyx. For now our interests are aligned."

That was less ideal. So many questions were running through her head. However, there was one she couldn't ignore.

"Will you kill us if we get in your way."

The creature hadn't shifted since the start of the questions, and this wasn't any different. It was unnerving how expressionless all it's answers had been so far.

"If it can't be avoided, I will do so without hesitation."

Aigis didn't like that answer. Not one bit.

"In that case," she said, "this is a warning. If you hurt any of them I will kill you."

The thing stared at her for a while before answering. It seemed almost contemplative.

"If you try, I will have to murder you," it replied softly.

She was about to point out the apparent contradiction in her words, but the world disappeared as she was shut down.

* * *

Minato felt the Kyoto trip was going well.

Considering the last days prior to the trip consisted primarily of aimless shots in the dark about the woman, it was nice to know that the world hadn't fallen apart.

They were on their second night in the hotel, and nothing had gone wrong. That was the most important thing. More satisfyingly though, people were cooling down and approaching him with less hostility.

He was also pleased that it seemed Yukari and Mitsuru were much closer than before. Mitsuru looked much better than he'd seen her since her father's death, and Yukari seemed conflicted whenever she looked at him. Less than ideal on the later, but a sizable step up from open hatred.

He was currently sitting in the main lobby of the hotel with Kenji and Kazushi, munching on a couple snacks they had bought at the convenience store built into the side. He made sure to buy ken something, stashing it away for their return.

"Idk man, what about Rio from the tennis team? You could totally go after her," Kazushi was saying. "It might help you move on from last time, and I think she likes you."

Kenji waved his hand dismissively, but seemed to be loving the attention. "We're siblings at this point. Even if I did want to do anything with her, which would threaten a lifelong friendship so no, there is no way she would be into basically incest. Besides, you know I'm a man of culture, who likes women who aged like fine wine." He glanced over Minato's shoulders making sure no one was present. "Speaking of women as poison, I hear you've had it pretty rough there buddy. Juggling multiple girls? Just one sounds like more than enough trouble."

He sighed as Kaz leaned forward in interest.

"Yeah, I did it," he said sadly. He briefly wondered where they had heard the rumor though. He wouldn't go too far down the line of questioning though. "Don't recommend it. No one makes it out ok."

Kenji frowned, but nodded knowingly. "I get that. You gotta tell me though man, Chihiro. She seemed like true catholic schoolgirl levels of repression. Did it show?"

Minato scoffed at his direct question but wrote off any malice it might hold. "We didn't actually do anything like that. She seemed like someone who would have regretted it."

"How moral of you," Kenji said approvingly, although disappointment in lack of details was apparent.

"Gotta ask though," Kaz jumped in, choosing his words carefully, "After all this, if you could start over and only date one, who would it be?"

He blinked. "Yukari of course. It's not even close."

"She is hot, in a cute young kind of way," Kenji said in agreement. "But knowing you there is something more than that right?"

He stared at the ground. "I think she was the only one where it felt like it was getting past the superficial on my part. I guess it's because it started with her actually calling me out."

"What on?" Kaz asked carefully. They were both plainly aware that this was uncharted territory for him. Well, so much for not too far. Fuck it. Lets go all the way.

"The fact that I've become some sort of social vampire. I'd flit around from person to person, wearing whatever mask is best at the time. I dig into the person, find out how they think, and add that to my collection. Once I had them, I'd move on. Nothing ever bothered me because nothing was real to me. She not only saw that mask she tried to pull it off."

He looked up to his friends who were completely in shock. He smiled nervously. It was natural they had never thought about him like that. He hadn't even phrased it like that to himself before. He had just talked off the top of his head. "Sorry guys, I didn't mean to go off like that."

"Its all good dude," Kenji said supportively.

"This whole friendship thing is a two way street," Kaz agreed. "I think I speak for both of us in that we are glad you were comfortable enough to open up like that." He held out a fist. "We may not be as cute as Yukari, but we've got your back here through this journey of self discovery, just like you had ours."

He bumped the fist, looking down again. How on earth was he supposed to respond to that? He had a thousand responses he could give, but how was HE supposed to respond to it?

"Thanks Kaz. I'm lucky I have you two." Lame. But he supposed he had to start somewhere.

"Thanks Kaz," Kenji mocked, pretending to be hurt. "No thanks Kaz! He just said I wasn't as cute as Yukari!" He flipped his hair dramatically. "Gurl, you got yo self another thing coming." He sprawled out on one of the sofas. "Feel free to draw me like one of your french girls, you'll see I'm much better in every way you want." He ended it with a flirtatious wink.

He couldn't help but start laughing. God damn he needed that. Everything had been so grim for so long that the stress had all built up around him like a chain holding him down.

"Ohh," Kenji said, sitting back up, "I'll seduce you later, for now, we have a true hottie walking in at your eight o'clock. Straight ten out of ten, lovely blond hair, just the right age."

Minato's heart stopped. No, no, no, everything was going so well. He didn't need this right now.

"You into foreign girls then?" Kazushi asked, sneaking a glance. "Although I have to admit, she IS pretty good looking. A bit tall though."

Minato felt the envoker under his jacket. One of the nice things about them being gun shaped was the Americans had perfected how to sneak them around. He had taken to carrying it around with him, just in case, since the incident. Looks like his caution was paying off.

He doubted he could take her on his own. Not only had she beat both Koromaru and Aigis at once, but it was incredibly difficult to summon and use a persona outside of the dark hour, so he wouldn't be at full power.

Why now, in public.

He was unnaturally gifted at battle, and the social links he had given up so much for let him dwarf the power of his fellow S.E.E.S. members. Nothing she had done so far actually put her out of his power scale all else being even. He might have even welcomed the fight had they been in Tartarus.

Here though, there was no chance of fighting her full power.

He pulled out his phone, sent out a mass text. _'She's in the lobby.'_

After that, he stood up, surprising both of his friends.

"You going for it?!" Kenji asked in shock. "Damn dude, I didn't know she was your type!"

"She's not," He said, mask slipping back on as if it had never left. "but what's the worst that could happen in a hotel lobby? Ruined everything else, time to take a stab in the dark."

The two were awestruck at his apparent courage, but in truth public spaces were the only safe place he could engage her outside of the dark hour. She had clearly put in effort to learn local customs to blend in, so she wanted a cover. He doubted she would blow it over harming him.

"Excuse me," He said in english, drawing her attention. However, her fake surprise told him she was very aware he had been there. Great. "We've met several times, do you remember me?"

She pretended to think before nodding. "We should talk somewhere private," she offered, motioning to the girl at the counter who was getting her a room key. She clearly didn't understand english, so she ignored them entirely.

"Here is fine," he said, "she can't understand us."

She paused and looked at him. She bent down again, so they were at head level with each other. She extended a hand.

"Samus Aaron."

He took it. "Minato Arisato."

"Are you here on a school trip?" She asked, looking at his friends who were badly pretending they weren't watching.

"Yes, however, not everyone could come. We had a friend named Aigis. She was blond, hung out around the school at night, a lot like you in fact."

This time she seemed genuinely surprised.

"How did you know?" She asked, maintaining the sweet tone for appearances.

"I have my ways."

"I left no evidence."

"There was a boot imprint in the carpet."

"And how did that come back to me?"

"Intuition."

"Liar."

"Magic."

"More believable."

The two were now staring each other down, hands still shaking as they both simply forgot to stop. They were each too focused on getting whatever they could out of the other.

She dropped the handshake finally, standing up and taking her key.

"I take it everyone else came?" she asked. "Yukari, Junpei, Akihiko, Mitsuru, Fuuka, and Ryoji?"

He felt his face darken as she began the list, but froze at the end.

"Ryoji has nothing to do with this," he said forcefully.

She sighed. "Do you even know what this is?" His face must have given away his answer because she continued on as if she got one. "Thought so. You've become strong and have a bright future ahead of you. You fought the good fight against the shadows. Be content with that. Now though, it's time for the big leagues. That means it's time for you to step down and just let me handle things. And the things I have to handle include Ryoji."

He looked at her in disbelief. Not because what she said, but because he felt his social link improving. Through all this. This was her idea of growing closer.

"By the way, move your holster to the other side. It's more accessible," she said, messing up his hair as she walked by him towards the stairs.

When she reached the bottom though, a gust of wind rushed through the hotel lobby as Samus was thrown through the hot springs wall and hit the central rock hard.

He turned to Kenji and Kazushi who were getting to their feet at this point. He held out a hand to stop them.

"Police, and paramedics" he shouted, pointing out the front door. They hesitated but nodded as they left the scene.

He made his way to the foot of the stairs, and saw Yukari, Isis floated behind her.

"In public," He said in disbelief, looking behind him. Samus was already rising out of the water.

"It was the only way," She said, surprisingly firmly. "Now stop standing there and follow me you asshole."

He sprinted up the stairs, feeling another rush of wind behind him before Yukari's persona vanished and she joined him.

"I'm definitely missing something," he said.

"You're not the only one who was investigating," she snapped. "And this time we just did it better than you."

**A/N I'm not one for big notes sections here, but now that the month is over, I might look at having a different story take priority. I appreciate you reading this far, and if you would like me to prioritize this story, leave some reviews/favorites and I'll know people are still interested :)**


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